The Boys on the Boat

The Boys on The Boat:

 Part 1

        Part one of “Boys on the Boat” presents the background for the rest of the story on two major topics Washington University’s rowing team, and the circumstances around Joe Rantz’s life which lead him to the Washington University crew. It also makes mention of Hitler and provides us with an early backdrop of berlin leading up to the 1936 Olympics as well as a brief look into the sport of rowing and some key members of the activity and their background. In the first chapter Daniel James Brown gives us a brief overview of the depression riddled northwest, the sport of rowing, and the global economic climate. Chapters two and four delve into the life of Joe Rantz while one and three are reserved for explaining rowing and its importance to Washington University.

        Chapter one paints a typical picture of an average grey and dingy day in Seattle; I have been to the northwest and am very familiar with how depressing just a week with the constant threat of rain and the absence of sun can be; this dreary weather is added to the poor living conditions associated with Hooverville’s in the grips of the great depression.  I can only imagine how grim outlook for people living in these conditions must have been. I’m sure the inability to get dry and warm served as a constant reminder of how quickly their lives had changed. The way I understood Daniel’s depiction of rowing in the early 1900’s was a sport with the following the NFL has today mixed with classiness of horse racing with the prestige of horse racing. Collegiate and Olympic crews were like rock stars without the social pressure of being followed by paparazzi. The prestige of rowing, really the Olympics in general is what drew Adolph Hitler to shift his viewpoint of the games from a waste of time to an opportunity to show the world how powerful his nation ad people could be. In the book a scene is depicted in which Hitler was standing on the outskirts of Berlin planning his monstrous Olympic facility which he required in order to show off the might of the German people.

        Joe Nantz is the typical character you read about in books and see on the big screen but in no way does that make Joe typical. Early on in Joe’s life he experiences hard ship his happy family was broken apart when his mother dies from what was likely tuberculosis although the book is not specific Joe is so young however he simply remembers his mother coughing up blood one day and her lying in a pine box the next. Joe is much too young at this point understand what is going on so he is more affected by the actions of his family.  Joe’s father is unable to cope with the loss of his wife and runs from his feeling in the Canadian wilderness leaving his much older brother Harry to take care of him. From this point on I believe Joe loses his true sense of what a father is because Harry can only fill part of that role. In Joe’s rollercoaster life Harry is able to provide Joe with stability which Joe always looks at as a happy time in life when he can explore and grow. When Joe’s father returns to the picture and takes Harry’s twin sister as his bride Joe’s life begins a downward slide to instability where he must fight for basic sustenance. Joe regards the unstable times as a stunt in his exploration in growth; however I believe these are the times in which Joe grows the most not just in his mental prowess as inventive young man able to solve any problem which is thrown his way but also physically like when he forced to hall heavy trays around all day in the kitchen in order to eat and then chop wood in order to have a place to stay. The adversity presented to Joe in his depressed and unstable days gave him the fit body to mold an athlete with mental gumption to push through the pain associated with any athletic challenge.